National reporting template - The Nairobi Convention

The Convention for the Protection, Management and Development of the Marine and Coastal Environment of the Eastern Africa Region, hereinafter referred to as the Nairobi Convention, is a legally binding regional agreement for the protection, management and development of the Eastern African Region. The Convention and two related protocols was adopted in 1985, and came into force in 1996. The Convention was amended in April 2010 to take into account emerging issues and trends at both global and regional levels, particularly those that have implications on the management of the coastal and marine environment. More so, the development of the LBSA Protocol to the Nairobi Convention is based on the wide recognition by the Contracting Parties that pollution from land-based sources and activities constitutes one of the major threats to the sustainability of the marine and coastal environment in the WIO region. The amended Nairobi Convention focuses on pollution from ships, pollution caused by dumping, pollution from land-based sources; pollution from sea-bed activities, airborne pollution, biodiversity protection, pollution in cases of emergency, and environmental damage from engineering activities among other things. Within the Convention, three protocols have been developed to deal with these issues: The Protocol Concerning Co-operation in Combating Marine Pollution in cases of Emergency in the Eastern African Region; the Protocol Concerning Protected Areas and Wild Fauna and Flora in the Eastern African Region; and the Protocol for the Protection of the Marine and Coastal Environment of the Western Indian Ocean from Land-Based Sources and Activities (LBSA Protocol).
In accordance to Article 23 of the Nairobi Convention, the Contracting Parties are obliged to transmit information on the measures adopted to implement the Convention and its Protocols, regularly to the Secretariat. The attached questionnaire is aimed at facilitating the transmission of such information from Parties to the Secretariat. The structure of the questionnaire will equally allow for easy sharing of information on issues related to the implementation of the Convention and its Protocols as envisaged in Articles 16b1 and d2,113, 134 and 235 of the convention and related protocols.